Ordinary people doing extraordinary things...

I spent the last week meeting and hearing from some pretty amazing people, and I’m not talking about the people who spoke at the conference I attended, but rather the “ordinary” people I met. Patrick who was looking to create a non-profit restaurant because he wants to make a difference in the industry he believes in and the people who work in it. Suzi, who is a sensitive and beautiful soul determined to express her artistry while staying grounded in order to offer her son a life she never knew. Suzanne committed to making a difference in the lives of people who few take the time to notice. Jeff who was looking for some inspiration to help drive his community college into a new paradigm beyond bricks and mortar or my good friend Gerry who at fifty-six is about to become the care giver for three young boys at a time when his friends and colleagues are entering the other side of child rearing and domestic administration.

Humbling stuff, yet all of it real and in the realm of everyday possibility, the speakers spoke of grandeur things or at least grandeur in the telling. But it was the ordinary stories that struck home for me. The daily challenge of doing the best you can do with what you have; the determination to make a difference in the immediate. Those are the stories of life, not the stuff of trendy books or centre stage. The stories of the unsung, those most ordinary yet extraordinary people.